Friday Dinner: Tuscan Pork Stew and Polenta

Tonight, with rain coming down in buckets, it was a perfect night for a warm, aromatic stew over creamy polenta cooked with milk and finished with some Asiago cheese and parsley. When Lynn, my cooking partner extraordinaire, suggested that we make this I was immediately all-in but since polenta's not her favorite thing, I was a little puzzled. She found a recipe on the Food and Wine site and  and thought that polenta was just the thing. It looked great to me, too - pork shoulder marinated in wine, aromatics, rosemary, sage, bay, and cloves! ... and juniper berries! According to the writer, it was developed by Chef Joe Sponzo to be made with wild boar.

...not that we don't have feral pigs with a little wild boar in the historical breeding mix here in Northern California. When I lived in Clayton for a little while (in Contra Costa County), I would read news reports of the wild/feral pigs that are the scourge of parks in and around Mt. Diablo, but no... we used pork shoulder.

One thing that struck both of us about the recipe is that it seemed like it hadn't been adapted for pork instead of wild boar. Some of the aromatics (juniper berries, cloves) and methods (boiling the meat before searing and braising it - don't do it) seemed more oriented towards game so we made some changes that I'll pass along in the recipe. In addition to the stew and polenta - we went a different direction with the polenta - we had roasted asparagus (Spring!) with garlic, salad and we drank a San Giovese with dinner.

RECIPE: TUSCAN PORK STEW WITH POLENTA

Adapted from: Tuscan Pork Stew with Polenta - Joe Sponzo | Food & Wine
Serves 6

I firmly believe that this dish is best served in a bowl. Don't include the step in the recipe where you simmer the meat before browning. This may be necessary if you're cooking wild boar, but not for pork shoulder. We reduced the spices a little (juniper berries and cloves) but let your own taste guide you. This is a hearty, delicious dish.


Tuscan Pork Stew
Pork Marinade Ingredients

• 1 bottle dry red wine
• 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves
• 1 tablespoon sage leaves
• 1 red onion, medium dice
• 1 celery rib, medium dice
• 1 carrot, medium dice
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 10 whole juniper berries, slightly bruised with the back of a spoon
• 1 teaspoons whole cloves
• 3 lbs boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 2" cubes

Marinade Preparation:
Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a 1 gallon resealable bag, add the pork cubes, seal and refrigerate at least 6 hours - preferably overnight (next time we're going to marinate for 24 hours).

Stew Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 celery rib, fine dice
• 1 carrot, fine dice
• 1 small red onion, fine dice
• 1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 2 teaspoons sage, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rosemary, chopped fine
• salt
• Crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 3 cups chicken stock or low sodium broth + more if necessary
• 2 whole cloves, 8 juniper berries, 2 bay leaves and 4-10 peppercorns, tied in cheesecloth

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 325, rack in the middle.

Remove the pork from the marinade. Rinse off the vegetables and aromatics, drain and then pat the cubes very dry and set aside. Do NOT simmer them, as called for in the original recipe or the meat will become tough. Heat a large, heavy-bottom dutch oven on medium for 5 minutes. Add half the olive oil and, if you pre-heated the pan, it will be hot and shimmery in a matter of seconds. Add the celery, carrot, red onion and garlic and saute until lightly browned. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside. Add the last half of the olive oil and brown the pork cubes, turning them to brown at least two sides. Don't crowd the pan - you may need to brown it in batches.

When this is complete return the vegetables and pork cubes to the pan. Add the sage and rosemary. Season with salt and a pinch of the crushed red pepper flakes. Cook for one minute. Add the wine and simmer until it's nearly evaporated (about 10 minutes). Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and spice bundle and bring to a boil.

Cover the pan and put it in the oven and cook for 1 hour to 1 hour and 40 minutes. Check the dish after 1 hour. If it's getting a little low on the sauce, add an additional cup of chicken stock. The pork cubes should be tender and a fork should turn easily in the cubes , but not entirely fall apart. Taste one to be sure.

Creamy Polenta with Cheese and Parsley
Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups water
• 1 cups polenta (not instant)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt + more, if necessary
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 oz pecorino romano cheese (or any aged, salty cheese) finely grated. 
• 2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped very fine

Preparation
 Heat the milk and water in a 3 (or more) qt. sauce pan until it just comes to barely a boil. Immediately add the salt and then the polenta in a thin stream, whisking vigorously for 1 to 3 minutes until it thickens. Turn the heat down to very low and partially cover (this is important as it becomes Vesuvius-y). Stir it occasionally (every 5 minutes) tasting occasionally until it is creamy and very nearly homogenous

Assembling the Servings
Dish some of the polenta into a bowl. Use a slotted spoon to add a serving of pork on top and then ladle some of the stew juices on top of the pork. You may want to start with a fork, but have a spoon at the ready.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Chile Verde

Sometimes it's hard pretending that it's summer and I should cook summer meals when I look out the window in the evening and see fog blowing up my street, my visibility is limited to two blocks and the wind is howling.  Okay I know, "Wah, wah, wah!" </end bitch session> Welcome to summer in San Francisco. At least in my neighborhood.

Last week I made chile verde and appreciated the warmth. Actually, I made it twice. The first time (a small batch with chicken) it was wimpy with absolutely zero heat. I used four jalapenos and I might as well have left them out. Coincidentally, a few days after I made it, I saw this article on CookThink. Demand for chiles has resulted in prettier, shipping friendly, but milder jalapenos.

"To meet the demand, jalapeno breeding has promoted varieties that are flawlessly pretty, easy to ship and easier to grow in cooler climates. Jalapenos used to be grown mostly in the high deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Northern Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. Hot, dry climates promote the production of capsaicin, the chemical that makes a hot pepper hot. Now, some varieties can be grown in wetter, cooler climates that don’t create enough heat for a spicy chile pepper."

Furthermore, the author provides information on varieties to look for if you want hotter or milder chiles. When I'm cooking and using chiles, I'll taste each one to get a sense of its heat - I should have followed my own advice on my first batch. Chiles are hotter at the stem end than the tip so I usually go for the middle. The ribs, core and seeds of the chile is where the majority of the heat is so if you taste the flesh and it's kinda wimpy, just trim off the stem and use the rest of the chile.

When I cook with chiles, my goal is to find the balance between enough heat without losing the taste of the other ingredients and the dish, overall.

Online Chile Resources:
Cook's Thesaurus: Fresh Chiles and Dried Chiles
Wikipedia: Scoville Scale (common method for categorizing a chile's heat)

I'm declaring my love for tomatillos. There, I said it.

Tomatillos (unrelated to tomatoes) are a fruit, related to the Cape Gooseberry. Green tomatillos are more tart than the purple-ish varieties. Raw, the taste of a green tomatillo is reminiscent of a Granny Smith apple. Tomatillos can be used raw or cooked. To prepare, remove the paper husks and rinse them in warm water to remove (most of) the sticky stuff which can be somewhat bitter. You don't have to completely remove it, so don't fret if there still some on the surface of the tomatillo.

Out of the broiler.

Sauce ingredients ready for the blender.

After blending.

Recipe: Chile Verde

Serves 6-8
Serve over rice, or with small corn tortillas, toasted just until they have a few brown spots, but are still pliable. Feel free to adjust the type and amount of chiles to your taste. This can also be made with chicken - I would recommend using chicken thighs as they stand up to long cooking without getting dry.

SAUCE
 Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs tomatillos, husks removed, rinsed in warm water to wash off some of the sticky stuff and then set on a kitchen towel to dry


• 4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled, but remove any extraneous papery husk - you don't want it to burn up.


• 4-8 serrano chiles (I used 4), cored and seeded (if preferred)


• 4 poblano chiles


• 1/2 cup (packed) cilantro (leaves and stems)


• 2 tablespoons lime juice


• salt

Sauce Preparation

• Turn on your oven's broiler.  Line a rimmed sheet pan with foil. Cut the tomatillos in half horizontally at their equators, set cut side down on a foil-lined pan.Add the garlic and serrano chiles to the pan.


• Broil for 4-7 minutes. I have no control over how far away the broiler pan is from the element in my stove and I think it's about 4-5 inches, so check your tomatillos after a few minutes and then frequently thereafter. You want them to break down and be (quite) brown on top, but it's okay if not every single tomatillo half is uniformly browned. Have I ever mentioned that I hate broilers that are underneath the oven? Ugh. I certainly do.


• When it's done, remove and allow it to cool a little before you remove the garlic gloves from the paper (discard this) and add everything to a blender. Do NOT add hot liquids to a blender and even if it's warm, only fill the blender halfway and hold a kitchen towel firmly over the lid. Failure to do so may result in a Vesuvius-like explosion and very painful burns. Blending in batches is just fine.


• You also need to roast the poblano chiles. I halved mine, removed the stem, seeds and core and broiled these in my toaster oven. Although I have a gas stove it's quicker to do it this way unless I am roasting them whole to be stuffed. You want the skin to be completely blackened. Remove from the broiler and let them cool down a little before removing the skin. I can usually just pick it off with my fingers, but you may also use a dinner knife and scrape gently. Do not rinse them!


• After you've removed the skin, add poblanos, the cilantro and the 2 tablespoons of lime juice to the tomatillo mixture and pulse a few times. Blend until everything has broken down and the mixture is homogenous. Season with a pinch of salt and pulse a couple of time, then taste and adjust as necessary. You don't want this to be seasoned as 'ready to eat' because there are other ingredients as well as chicken stock or broth to consider, so be conservative. Set aside while you're preparing the remainder of the dish. This can be made a couple of days in advance and stored covered, in the refrigerator.

CHILE VERDE

• 3-4 lbs boneless pork shoulder, trimmed of exterior fat, some of the interior fat and as much as you can of the connective tissue that won't melt in the cooking process. Cut into 3" x 2" (approximate) chunks. Don't go crazy and remove ALL the fat - it is a natural meat-baster. It's hard to remove fat after the dish is fully complete if you prefer less fat, because the sauce is very thick, but not too hard after the first phase where it has been cooking in the sauce for just about an hour
  
  Season the pork pieces on both sides with about 3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt for every pound of meat. Store in the refrigerator for several hours and, if you have the time, up to three days.

• 2 tablespoons oil - high smoke point (I used canola)


•  2 medium onions, large dice


• 4 cloves garlic, minced


• 2 serrano chiles, small dice


• Tomatillo sauce (see above)


• 2 cups hot chicken stock, or low sodium chicken broth, or water +more if necessary


• 4 tablespoons fresh ground cumin powder, divided


• 4 tablespoons fresh ground coriander powder, divided


• 2 tablespoons Mexican oregano, divided


• 1/2 cup (packed) rough-chopped cilantro leaves (I use the stems too, but you might just want the leaves)


• Sliced, pickled jalapenos - homemade or from the store. You can buy them hot, medium or mild. I used 1/2 a jar (including the juice), labelled "hot".


• kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Suggested Garnish:

• Avocado, sliced or diced, quartered limes or lime slices, cilantro leaves roughly chopped.

Preparation:
Remove the pork pieces from the refrigerator 20-30 minutes before you're ready to cook it. Add the oil to a large, heavy dutch oven and heat on medium high until the oil shimmers. Test with a piece of the pork - it needs to seriously sizzle. Add the pork shoulder pieces and brown well on each side - three to four minutes. You don't want to crowd the pan, so do this in batches if necessary. Remove to a platter and pour out all but a couple of tablespoons of remaining fat.

Add the onions and cook until translucent and just slightly golden, adjusting the heat if necessary so that you don't brown them too much. Make a little room in the pan and add the minced garlic and diced serrano chiles. Cook until the garlic is a very pale straw color. Add 2 tablespoons of the cumin, 2 tablespoons of the coriander and 1 tablespoon of the Mexican oregano and combine with the other ingredients already in the pan and cook on medium for 3-4 minutes.

Add the tomatillo sauce and stir it to combine with the other ingredients. Cook this at a strong simmer for about 5 minutes, uncovered. Add 2 cups of the chicken stock or low sodium broth and stir to combine. Cook this for another 5 minutes and taste. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Add the pork back to the pan along with any accumulated juices and cook everything, covered, at a medium simmer for about an hour. At this point, if you wish, you can skim off any fat that has risen to the top of the mixture.

Remove the cover and continue to cook at a medium simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons cumin, 2 tablespoons coriander and 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano. The chile will start to reduce in volume. Add the cilantro and the pickled jalapeno slices and continue to cook until it has reached the consistency of a thick stew. Take the chile off heat and roughly break up the pork pieces with two forks - they should be chunky, but easy to eat. If you're going to serve this with tortillas, you don't want it to be too liquid-y. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serve over rice, with tortillas (or both) and serve garnishes on the side.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

(Nearly) Last Minute Pozole Rojo Con Pollo

Back when I made these pan-seared chicken breasts, I saw the recipe on SFGATE for Nopalito's Posole Rojo. I made the adobo part of the dish and stuck it in the fridge thinking I'd use the leftover chicken for some posole on Cinco de Mayo. You can make this (nearly) at the last minute if you make the main components in advance: the meat, hominy and adobo can all be cooked in advance and refrigerated for a short period. If you do that, the bulk of the work you'll have to do is to assemble the posole components and prep the garnishes. This dish is wonderful.

Along came Thursday morning, May 5 - Cinco de Mayo and I hadn't cooked the hominy. No, not the canned hominy. I never understood why (generally) I didn't like dishes like posole, or others that included canned hominy -- and canned was the only hominy I knew about. I liked the corn-y taste and the texture but there was some off-flavor that I couldn't identify that ruined (for me) whatever dish it was in. One morning at the market, I stopped by Rancho Gordo's stand (I have a lot to say about beans and about Steve Sando and Rancho Gordo, but that will be another post) and there was a bag of dried hominy (White Corn Posole/Hominy). I thought that I couldn't hate it more than canned hominy so I took it home and stared at it for a while trying to figure out what I'd make.

Ultimately I used it in a bean dish (that I cannot quite reproduce as I cooked it, damn it, because it was delicious) that I adapted from Heidi Swanson (who adapted it from a Nopa recipe by Laurence Jossel). I combined Christmas limas, some chickpeas and the dried hominy from Rancho Gordo. I cooked the hominy in advance and when it was tender took one and ate it hoping that I would like it (it smells pretty freaking amazing while it's cooking)...

Yes, yes and YES! It tastes intensely corny and has a chewy-tender texture. This is good stuff. Also it's important to cook them until (as I refer to it) they 'bloom', kind of like the way that popcorn opens up. I was thrilled that I could love something I'd previously given up on. I'm pretty sure it was mostly the canned taste. If you have to use canned hominy, I recommend that you rinse and drain it very thoroughly. 

So, back to the last minute Cinco de Mayo posole and the hominy I hadn't cooked. It was a busy work day (I was working from home) and I didn't have any time to tend anything in the kitchen so I dumped them in the slow cooker with a lot of water and a thin-sliced medium onion, set it on high and went back to work checking on them every couple of hours. I don't know how long it took, but by 4:00 pm, I had beautiful hominy ready for my posole. At that point I had a little time and cooked-down the left-over hominy water and reduced it in a sauce pan on the stove - I used this as part of the liquid in the posole, but it's not necessary.

RECIPE: POSOLE ROJO CON POLLO
 - Serves 6
 Adapted from Nopalito's Posole Rojo, published on SFGATE

Ingredients:

• Hominy
• 2 cups Rancho Gordo dried hominy
• Adobo
• 7-8 dried chiles (I used 4 ancho, 2 guajillo and 2 New Mexico chiles)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 onions, medium dice
• 1-2 teaspoons whole cumin seed, crushed (but not powdered) with a mortar and pestle
• 2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
• 4 stems cilantro
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
•  Chicken & Stock (for the Posole assembly)
• 2 tablespoons corn oil or neutral oil
• 4 cups shredded pre-cooked chicken meat
• 2 1/2 quarts chicken stock (I used a combination of 2 cups reduced hominy cooking water, 1 quart vegetable stock and 1 quart chicken stock because that's what I had. If you cook the meat from scratch - as in the Nopalita recipe - your stock will come from the posole section of that recipe)
•   Garnishes
• 2 cups thinly shredded cabbage - I like napa or savoy cabbage for this
• 8 radishes, julienned
• 2 small-medium avocados, diced
• 3 limes, quartered
• 1/2 a small red onion, diced
• baked tortilla chips = about 8 6" corn tortillas
• dried Mexican oregano
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon ground, toasted chile de arbol mixed with kosher salt, to taste.

Method:

• Hominy (at least the day before you plan to serve)
• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pick through the hominy then place it in a heavy casserole and cover with at 3" inches of water. Bring this to a gentle boil on the stove. Cover and place in the oven on the middle rack. Cook until the hominy has 'bloomed' but is not falling apart - about 2-3 hours. It should double in volume. Strain and store in the refrigerator, covered.
• Adobo
• Remove and discard chile stems and seeds and place in a bowl large enough to hold the chiles and hot water. Completely cover the chiles with very hot water for about 15 minutes until they are completely soft. You may place a plate (smaller than the diameter of the edge of the bowl on top to keep the chiles submerged) on top of the chiles. Once they are soft, remove the chiles and taste the soaking water. If it is not bitter (sometimes it is) ladle off about 1-2 cups and reserve. If it is bitter, have the same volume of water or stock at hand.
• Add the chiles, garlic, onion, cumin seeds, oregano and cilantro to a blender and puree, adding enough of the soaking liquid to form a smooth puree. Season to taste.
• The adobo can be made in advance and refrigerated.
• Assemble the Posole
• Heat the stock in a sauce pan, reserving 1 1/2 cups.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil on medium in a heavy pot or Dutch oven. When the oil is shimmering and on the verge of smoking, add the adobo (be careful - watch for splatter!) and 'fry' it in the oil for 2-3 minutes while stirring - you don't want to burn the adobe. Adjust the head down the heat as necessary.
• Add 3 cups of the shredded chicken and adjust the heat so that the adobo and chicken is simmering.
• Puree 1 cup of the hominy with the reserved stock.
• Add the hominy puree and the remainder of the hominy to the pot.
• Add one-half of the stock to the pot and stir. The consistency of the dish can be anywhere from soup-like to stew-ish - your preference. Continue to add stock until you are satisfied. Simmer the posole for about 20 minutes, covered. Taste and adjust the seasoning. If making ahead, let it cool, cover and refrigerate.
• Serve
• If you made the posole ahead of time, heat it up on the stove and prepare the garnishes.
• Serve in bowls topped by the cabbage and radishes. 
• Serve the remainder of the garnishes on the side in bowls for your guests to add as they wish.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad